I choose my own stories: Sujay

Neelambari Bhoge

Following the tradition of enriching Marathi Cinema, National award winning filmmaker Sujay Dahake is back with a film - ‘Ajoba’ that is based on a true story of a leopard. ‘Ajoba’ – the leopard’s miraculous journey from Pune to Mumbai was mapped with the help of a radio transmitter tied around his neck by a wildlife biologist Vidya Athreya. Dahake shares with us his experience of making this film packed with extra-ordinary story and rich visual effects.

Why did you choose to highlight this story?

From a very long time, I wished to make a movie based on environment and wildlife. The incident of the leopard ‘Ajoba’ made this possible for me to come up with a full length film. While scripting there was no hero or protagonist but ‘Ajoba’ gave me a heroic character and to address all these issues, I found a hook in Ajoba and also got a hero to the story.

Why did you cast popular actors Urmila Matondkar and Yashpal Sharma in the film?

As the story demanded, I was looking for actor in her early 40s. The actress I was looking for had to be athletic, energetic and in shape and Urmila suited the role well. As Urmila speaks good Marathi, the idea of roping her struck us. However, we were a bit skeptical as she is a famous star in Bollywood. I narrated the story to her and she readily agreed. Talking about Yashpal, as per the script, I wanted an unknown character that has no dimension and is mystic. My earlier choice for this role was Nawazuddin Siddique. We shot this film like a documentary, took actors to certain places, stayed there for 15 days, especially in leopard prone areas. This delayed our schedule and we missed Nawazuddin’s dates. Eventually our next choice was Yashpal for whom I wrote the role again keeping him into perspective.

What obstacles did you face while shooting this film especially the shots with the leopard?

The film has been shot in Junnar, Malshej Ghat, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Pune and Mumbai but the scenes of the leopard are shot in Rajasthan in the wild. Leopard is an elusive animal and very hard to see. To catch a glimpse of him was itself a boon and then capturing him in the camera was a difficult task. We spend almost six days and waiting for 12 hours each day and amidst this he would arrive for just 40 seconds. We would keep the camera on standby and then he would come out from the den or from hills and would disappear for hunt. We would hardly get footage of a minute.

Tell us about the technical aspects of the film.

We have roped in the same cameraman of ‘Shaala’ Diego Romero from Spain. The film promises to be different in terms of technology as we have used British lenses called ‘cooke’. We have also made use of several visual effects. Maximo Ricky – the one who designed the tiger of ‘Life of Pi’ is designing the leopard for us.

How has been the journey from ‘Shaala’ to ‘Ajoba’?

The experience of making ‘Shaala’ boosted the confidence in me about choosing my own subjects. Whenever producers approach me, they never come to me with a script but ask me what do you have next or what do you want to do? That really helps me to convey myself as a filmmaker. ‘Shaala’ gave me a lot of awards but I am happy about the National award. 

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